Chicago-based RDG Funds has paid just over $40 million for 13Thirteen Randolph Street Lofts, a 70-unit apartment building in the Fulton Market district. Property values in the former meatpacking district just west of the Kennedy Expressway have soared in recent years. (RDG Funds)

A Randolph Street apartment building that got its start as one of the nation’s largest floral markets has sold for just over $40 million, continuing the trend of soaring real estate values in a Chicago neighborhood once known for meatpackers and wholesalers.

Chicago-based private equity real estate firm RDG Funds bought the 70-unit building, called 13thirteen Randolph Street Lofts, in a $40.15 million deal that was completed Monday, RDG partner Brett Moore Jr. said. The purchase also included a neighboring two-story building at 114 N. Elizabeth St. with four apartments and retail space.

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The sale price is about 24% higher than the nearly $32.5 million that an affiliate of J.P. Morgan Investment Management paid for it in January 2014, according to Cook County property records.

It’s the latest on a long list of examples of rising real estate values in the fast-changing Fulton Market district just west of the Kennedy Expressway.

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The area “is uniquely positioned to outperform, as a combination of private investment, employment gains and social engagement continues to generate the most dynamic live-work-play environment in the city of Chicago,” Moore said in a news release. “RDG is thrilled to be a long-term owner in Fulton Market.”

The J.P. Morgan venture bought the wide, low-slung former Wholesale Florist Exchange building soon after the previous owner completed a renovation into modern apartments in 2013.

Completed in 1927 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the building at 1313 W. Randolph St. once served as one of the nation’s largest floral markets.

The property includes 71 parking spaces enclosed in the building, a 33-space surface parking lot and ground-floor retail with tenants including a Kids & Company daycare and a CorePower Yoga studio.

RDG Funds invests in real estate throughout the country, including in and around cities such as Los Angeles; Houston; Nashville, Tennessee; Denver; Indianapolis; and Washington, D.C. The firm’s Chicago properties include a loft office just east of the Kennedy at 156 N. Jefferson St., where RDG has its offices.

Meatpackers and other gritty businesses have moved out of the area in recent years, making way for huge office tenants such as McDonald’s and Google, apartments, restaurants, retail and hotels including the Soho House, Hoxton, Ace and Nobu brands.

The transformation has pushed up residential and commercial rents, allowing many longtime building owners to cash in at prices far above what they once imagined.

One notable example is directly across from the 13thirteen building, at 1314 W. Randolph.

Michael and Kristin Roberts in July 2018 sold a former warehouse, which they used as their home and a photography studio, for $8.5 million. That was more than 35 times their purchase price in 1989, when they were surrounded by forklifts and prostitutes.